Building Broadband: Brightspeed reaches 50% fiber rollout milestone in Louisiana; C Spire lights up fiber broadband 14K Mississippi unserved locations

Brightspeed reaches 50% fiber rollout milestone in Louisiana
Brightspeed continues to make headway in its Louisiana network build, completing 50 percent of the state’s footprint and 100 percent complete in the Basile and Bordelonville communities. Over 43,000 homes and businesses in the Bayou State have access to Brightspeed Fiber Internet. Brightspeed's network construction is well underway in the following parishes where crews are deploying fiber: Allen, Avoyelles, Bossier, Caddo, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, La Salle, Rapides, St. Martin and Webster. The service provider’s expansion in Louisiana is supported by both private investment and public funding partnerships. In November 2024, Brightspeed announced that Louisiana, the first state to announce its Broadband Equity and Access Deployment (BEAD) funding grants, awarded it more than $7.5 million in BEAD funds to augment its private investment in building its fiber network to reach another 2,800 locations in the state. Additionally, Louisiana awarded Brightspeed more than $270,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to provide high-speed connectivity to 409 Louisianans who don't have it today. Once construction is complete, Brightspeed Fiber Internet will reach approximately 85,300 homes and businesses statewide.

C Spire lights up fiber broadband 14K Mississippi unserved locations
C Spire has completed the allocation of the Mississippi Capital Projects Fund, enabling it to provide residential fiber access to over 14,000 residences and 18,530 undeveloped lots across Amite, Lincoln, Lamar, Madison, DeSoto, and Hinds counties. It also positively impacted some of Mississippi's most underserved communities. C Spire was awarded the grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s $10 billion Capital Projects Fund, which provides capital for critical capital projects to ensure all communities have access to modern infrastructure, including broadband. The project, administered at the state level by BEAM, the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi, was part of $164 million in total funds allocated to Mississippi for the construction and deployment of broadband infrastructure to deliver service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps.

Ezee Fiber activates first fiber broadband customers in Novi, accelerates Michigan expansion
Ezee Fiber has connected its first customers in Novi, Michigan, marking the service provider’s first step in building its Michigan network and expanding symmetrical fiber service across the Wolverine state. Installations are now underway, giving residents access to Ezee Fiber’s fiber broadband network. Ezee Fiber began expanding in the Midwest in 2025 and continues to scale rapidly. In addition to Novi, the company is building fiber infrastructure across Chicagoland, with service activation on a rolling basis as construction is completed.

Fybe extends broadband access to eight rural North Carolina counties
Fybe has been awarded $2.4 million through North Carolina’s Stop-Gap Solutions program to expand high-speed internet access to 826 locations across Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties by the end of 2026. This funding is part of a broader statewide initiative announced by Governor Josh Stein, allocating nearly $26 million to connect more than 5,000 homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions in rural and underserved areas across North Carolina. The Stop-Gap Solutions program is designed to accelerate broadband deployment by targeting hard-to-reach locations and closing critical connectivity gaps. Administered by the N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity, the Stop-Gap Solutions program uses federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support targeted broadband line extensions. These projects focus on connecting unserved and underserved households, businesses, and community institutions that may otherwise be left behind in larger deployment efforts.

IQ Fiber brings new broadband choice to Delaware
IQ Fiber recently began offering its fiber broadband service in Delaware, the company’s fifth state. The Jacksonville, Florida-based broadband provider launched service in Kent County, making it the first community in Delaware to be served by IQ Fiber’s fiber network. Marking the beginning of a more than $150 million investment by IQ Fiber in Delaware’s Kent County, the network deployment is expected to continue for the next 18-24 months and create more than 50 permanent jobs in the state. IQ Fiber will participate in the new Priority Broadband project designation under Governor Meyer’s Permitting Accelerator, a program designed to fast-track infrastructure projects that expand connectivity and drive economic growth. The designation coordinates review across state agencies, cutting through red tape to accelerate the permitting process and get communities connected faster. With its entry into Delaware, IQ Fiber now operates in five states across the Eastern U.S. The company’s network serves customers in Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and various markets across the Chesapeake Bay Region of Maryland. Construction is currently underway in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, Florida.

Spectrum makes Hamilton County, Indiana, its next broadband target
Spectrum announced the expansion of its fiber broadband network to bring Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to more than 900 additional homes and businesses in previously unserved or underserved areas of Hamilton County, Indiana. The cable MSO’s multi-year rural construction initiative is driven by more than $7 billion in private investment from Spectrum. It will ultimately add 100,000+ miles of fiber network infrastructure and deliver symmetrical, multi-gigabit speeds to more than 1.7 million new locations across the country.